Last week, the FDA approved Opill, the first daily oral contraceptive that will be available for sale over the counter in stores as well as online. Reproductive health advocates hailed the groundbreaking approval as a step that can help millions of people avoid pregnancy, which is unintended nearly half the time in the United States.
They long have argued that eliminating the often-time-consuming step of requiring people to get a prescription before they can get birth control pills would expand access and give people more control over their contraceptive decisions.
Advocates want the FDA approval to signal a trend.
“We hope that this is only the beginning for expanding access to a range of over-the-counter contraceptive options,” said Kelly Blanchard, president of Ibis Reproductive Health, part of a coalition of advocacy groups that have worked for decades to make contraception available over the counter.
For example, a company called Cadence is working on getting FDA approval for a birth control pill with a different formulation that would also be available over the counter without a prescription.
But many details related to cost and coverage of an OTC pill still need to be sorted out. Here are answers to common questions and concerns people may have about the new pill and how to use it with their insurance.
Who is most likely to be interested in an over-the-counter oral contraceptive like Opill?
Anyone might be interested, depending on their circumstances. In a survey conducted last year, more than three-quarters of women of reproductive age said they were in favor of making birth control available over the counter as long as research…
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